Athletics

Athletics
INTRODUCTION
Athletics is considered to be mother of all games and is in fact the way of living and not
just a sport. Athletics not only builds you physically but it helps in body coordination and
gives you mental stiffness. Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve
competitive running, jumping, throwing, swimming, archery and many. The most
common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country
running and race walking.
The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek “athlon” i.e. “prize” or
“competition”.
Athletics is to Ballesteros (1992), the physical activity consisting of natural actions, done
by men and women in various forms since the origin of species, such as running,
jumping and throwing. Already in classical antiquity, athletics takes the form of a
regulated activity, and over the years it has evolved and its program been modified,
becoming a sport that encompasses such different events, that the morphology and
physical characteristics of the ideal athlete are very different from one discipline to
another (for example, throwers compared to distance runners). Athletics is the basic
sport par excellence, for the tradition, its universality, the prestige and the wide range of
skills and qualities required for its practice. Therefore, in the Olympic Games it is one of
the most important sports. It is practiced throughout the world for its high educational
value and how it improves the physical condition, being the basis of physical
preparation for the rest of the sports.
The athletic programme is composed of:
 Track events: Races (Flat and with hurdles).
 Field events: Throws and jumps.
 Race walking.
 Combined events.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is an international
governing body for athletics. It was founded on 17th July 1912 as the International
Amateur Athletic Federation by representatives from 17 national athletics federations at
the organization’s first congress in Stockholm, Sweden.
Presidents
Since the establishment of the IAAF, it has had six presidents:
Name Country Presidency

Sigfrid Edstrom Sweden 1912–1946
Lord Burghley (later Lord Exeter) United Kingdom 1946–1976
Adriaan Paulen Netherlands 1976–1981
Primo Nebiol Italy 1981–1999
Lamine Diack Senegal 1999–2015
Lord Coe United Kingdom 2015–Present
Area Associations
The IAAF has a total of 215 member federations divided into 6 area association.
 AAA – Asian Athletics Association in Asia
 CAA – Confederation of African Athletics in Africa
 CONSUDATLE – Confederacion Sudamericana de Atletismo in South America
 NACAC – North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association
in North America
 OAA – Oceania Athletics Association in Oceania
Athletics Federation of India

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is the apex body in Athletics in India and is
responsible for conduction Competitions in the country. It was earlier called as Amateur
Athletic Federation of India (AAFI). It is associated with both Asian Athletics Association
(AAA) and International Association of Athletics Federations.

HISTORY
Ancient Greek statue Discobolus, portraying a discus thrower
Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all
sports and their roots are prehistoric. Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient
Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival and high
jumping appearing in tombs from as early as of 2250 BC. The Tailteann Games were an
ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded circa 1800 BC, and the thirty-day meeting
included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. The original and only
event at the first Olympics in 776 BC was a stadium-length running event known as the
stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient
pentathlon. Athletics competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which
were founded later around 500 BC.
History of Track & Field
In the year 776 BC in the ancient Olympia in Greece the first Olympic Games were held
and during those games, only one, to use modern day terminology, track and field event
was held and that was the stadium footrace and the winner of that events and the first
ever Olympic winner was Koroibos. Athletics or rather some of the aspects of athletics
were present at the Panhellenic Games that were held in Greece and from there the
ideas and the main concepts of the Athletics spread to Italy around the year 200 BC.
During the next several centuries Athletics developed in slow steps. However, during
the Middle Ages the new wave of the track and field development began. During that
time track and field developed in the Northern part of Europe. Track and field as we
know it today began developing in the 19th century when first competitions in track and
field took places. In that time, those track and field competitions primary were organized
by educational institutions, sport clubs and some military organizations. The events
organized by these institutions were actually the one that included the hurdle races.
During this period, first national athletics associations have been established and shortly
after that first national competitions took place. Among the first associations who
organized such competitions was Amateur Athletic Association of England who in 1880
organized the annual AAA Championship. Even before England, the New York Athletic
Club from the United States organized the first USA Outdoor Track and Field
Championship back in 1876.
As track and field was developing in big steps during that time, there was one common
problem that all athletes shared. During that time, all athletes were considered to be
amateurs and because of the known rule that the amateur athletes could not receive
training money, money prizes or sponsorship deals that was ever growing issues
among the athletes. The charges that some athlete might be a professional eventually
lead to stripping of the victories that that athlete had in previous period.
One of the biggest milestone for the development of the Athletics came back in 1896 at
the Summer Olympic Games. In those Games in Athens, track and field together with a
marathon comprised the majority of the sporting events at that Games. Besides that,
those Games are also important because they for the first time introduced the metric
measurement that was used in the track and field competitions. During the next couple
of decades the development of the track and field, or rather; the athletics in general, put
the Athletics on the path of becoming the most important aspect of the Olympic Games
for every game in the future.

In 1912, the second milestone in the development of the Athletics occurred when the
International Amateur Athletic Federation or IAAF was founded and as such it became
the international governing body for track and field. The officials of the IAAF of that time
emphasized the importance of the amateurism for the athletics and it became of the
basic principle on which IAAF will continue to operate. Up until the early 1920’s, track
and field was only a male sport. Women became part of the athletics only after women’s
sport movement organized Women’s World Games back in 1921. However, women for
the first time participated in track and field competitions at the Olympic Games back in
1928 Summer Olympic Games.

Athletics

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Athletics

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Athletics

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Athletics

running and race walking.

preparation for the rest of the sports.

The athletic programme is composed of:

 Track events: Races (Flat and with hurdles).

 Field events: Throws and jumps.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is an international

Amateur Athletic Federation by representatives from 17 national athletics federations at

the organization’s first congress in Stockholm, Sweden.

Since the establishment of the IAAF, it has had six presidents:

Name Country Presidency

Lord Burghley (later Lord Exeter) United Kingdom 1946–1976

Adriaan Paulen Netherlands 1976–1981

Primo Nebiol Italy 1981–1999

Lamine Diack Senegal 1999–2015

Lord Coe United Kingdom 2015–Present

 AAA – Asian Athletics Association in Asia

 CAA – Confederation of African Athletics in Africa

 CONSUDATLE – Confederacion Sudamericana de Atletismo in South America

 NACAC – North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association

 OAA – Oceania Athletics Association in Oceania

Athletics Federation of India

(AAA) and International Association of Athletics Federations.

Ancient Greek statue Discobolus, portraying a discus thrower

were founded later around 500 BC.

History of Track & Field

Championship back in 1876.

for every game in the future.

1928 Summer Olympic Games.

You might also like